Nightclubs close voluntarily due to increase in contagions

BarcelonaThe nightlife sector does not want to pay the price for the increase of covid infections that affects the youngest the most. For that reason, some nightclubs, after finding that with the current measures it is "impossible" to guarantee that they are "safe" leisure spaces, have opted to close. This is what the two Arena group clubs have done, which in a statement lamented this "impossibility" to stay protected as a safe space if no new measures such as limiting entry to whoever has a negative antigen test or until the vaccination campaign is not more advanced.

They are not the only ones who have decided to take this step: Cocoa and La Milonga in Mataró, Quedequé in Montblanc and Titus in Badalona have closed too. The latter claims they have a "moral obligation" to do so, given that the evolution of the pandemic. The management remarked that it is "very complicated" to work having to ensure that everyone complies with the guidelines.

The nightlife employer association, Fecasarm, defends that preventive closures have been agreed out of "responsibility" and launch a warning to the Department of Health: "If the legal offer gradually disappears, the illegal one will rise and the contagions will increase", defends Joaquim Boada, general secretary of the entity, in statements to ARA. He believes that the trickle of closures would have to "make the Government react" and introduce changes in the protocols and allow premises only to allow entry to those who have tested negative. He assures that nightclubs could mitigate the cost of the test with offers on drinks or on ticket prices and that it is "the only way" of guaranteeing that everybody that enters can be "sure" of not becoming infected nor infecting others.

"Carrying the can"

Now, he points out, the premises are exposed to becoming "the main culprits" of any contagion or outbreak at night because they are the only ones where traceability is controlled. "It is evident that, with current rules, legal nightlife is very likely to have to carry the can for all the contagions and outbreaks that may occur in both legal and illegal nightlife activities", employers regret.

Nightclubs can open from June 21, fifteen months after they closed due to the pandemic, with customer registration, mandatory masks whenever not drinking, prohibition of consumption on the dancefloor and limited capacity, among other measures. Places such as Arena nightclub in Blanes or Sala Razzmatazz in Barcelona for the moment have chosen not to reopen and Apolo will do so tonight with safety measures.